I know, dont dream do, but this will do for now

Winter – Surefoot Stout and Ugg Boots

Winter is finally here, when I was grabbing a paper this morning the guy at the shop told me he had two jumpers on and two pairs of pants on. I guess that is as clear a sign of anything that it is indeed Winter and cold. For me two things that say cold and winter, that is stout and ugg boots. As I haven’t brewed any stout for some months (yep way overdue for that) I have to buy some if I want to drink it, but hang on I’m ahead of myself. How did i get to buying some Surefoot Stout this evening?

Yesterday I noticed that James from Beer Bar Band posted on Surefoot Stout. Then I posted “tis a good beer, shame its not still on the regular roster” Very true words even if they were said myself. He noted that there was an out of roster batch at Vintage Cellars.

I then spent all today in a meeting where among all other things I dodged having to try and get shearing into the commonwealth games (hopefully). On the train on the way home I listened to an episode of the Jamil Show CYBI, the Shakespeare Stout re brew show.

All this dull work and talk of stout left me with no option but to go to my local Vintage Cellars with the hope of finding some Surefoot Stout. Thankfully it was there. Awesome. Its a tad sad that this beer isn’t on the regular roster these days, bumped back to being one of Mountain Goats “Rare Breed” or seasonal beers. It was nice to have a choice in my go to stout selection other than Coopers Best Extra Stout (a most excellent beer also) but the economics seem to have made this beer a once in a while rather than an always.

Anyway what is it? Its kind of an English stout, think coffee chocolate and roastyness. It has a really nice smooth mouth feel with a not too big dose of bitterness that seems to cling to the roof of your mouth. Its a really nice beer. Have this with some dark chocolate or some blue cheese (neither of which I have in the house unfortunately) The other thing this beer would work beautifully with is a stout float. The recipe is simple, just float some vanilla ice cream in a glass of stout. Enjoy.

I'm not usually a fan of the super dark beers, but I had a Holgate's Chocolate Porter last weekend up at Woodend, and it was bloody awesome.Tell me beer nerds, what is the difference between porter and stout?

in its most simplistic form one is black, one is brown. It comes down to the amount of black, roasted and caramel malts used in the beer. There is a whole style guidelines that covers this in way more detail than I've done here.